First Trip to Europe
 

Hello Fellow Travellers,

I am planning a 10 day trip to Europe with my wife in either end of May ( Memorial Day weekend ) or First Week of July ( Independence Day Weekend). I am going to travelling from Orlando or Miami depending upon cost of the flight. This is a wedding anniversary gift to my wife so i want this trip to be memorable.
We are both in late 20's and never been to europe before. We both love museums, wine, food, natural beauty and architecture. We only want to visit the countries which are part of Schengen Area as we have to obtain a visa prior to arrival.

We have thought of few countries that we want to travel - Italy, Austria, France ( Paris Especially), Turkey, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Greece, Netherlands and Croatia.

I know i have listed ton of countries but every countries pictures i see, It looks amazing. I just want to make the best of the first trip and time of the year. We can visit 2 cities in 2 different countries if the travelling time is not too much. We will be travelling mostly with flights unless a short train is available.

I want to visit only 1 or max 2 of this countries in this visit. If you guys can help me out to pick a country or two which has a nice weather around the time i have mentioned, not a whole lot crowded, good food and wine, beautiful scenery for amazing photos :)

We can stay in hostels and stuff, Budget is not a huge concern.

Please please help me out here and let me know if i need to provide any more information.

In 10 days to see a cross-section without going crazy, my suggestion would be this:

1. Several days in Paris

2. Evening TGV train Paris Gare de Lyon to Zurich, from €25 pre-booked at www.capitainetrain.com. Overnight Zurich.

3. Morning train from Zurich to Chur and the amazing Bernina Express through the Swiss Alps to Tirano in Italy. Local train on to Milan. Overnight Milan. See http://www.seat61.com/BerninaExpress.htm for how to book this cheaply. By all means stop off for a day in somewhere like Poschiavo to break up the trip.

4. Morning train to Venice, from €9 booked at www.trenitalia.com

5. A couple of days in Venice!

Schengen knocks out Turkey and Croatia

Travel consumes a fair bit of a holiday

10 days what with flights and jet lag means 8 days on the ground.

Paris Especially (so lets fix France in you two country combo)
Netherlands is right next door and very easy to get into and out of
Switzerland ditto, but you can roughly double the cost of the Netherlands in Switzerland today (exchange rates move)
Italy makes a fair bit of sense, does Venice interest you?
Austria (think a bit like Switzerland but lower costs)
Greece,
Czech is really Prague for what would be a short trip with maybe one day trip out of town.

I'd grab a guide book from the library and start hammering them down.

However, if I was coming for my first time I'd do

Paris and Amsterdam or
Paris and Venice

I would definitely do May instead of July - the weather will be more pleasant (not too hot) and there will be fewer tourists due to many US kids still being in school and many europeans not yet on vacation.

I think you need to get a few guide books and tour brochures (for pictorial only) and each make a list of 5 or 6 absolutely must sees (ie Eiffel Tower or Amsterdam canals or hiking in the Alps). then compare the lists and see where you have duplicates and start there - eliminating as needed to fit your schedule.

Also determine exactly how many nights you have on the ground - not counting the day you arrive or the day you depart.

As for transportation, europe has a lot of high speed trains - so unless the train trip will take more than 5 hours it's a better choice then flying - since no flights take less than that once you count the processing time at the airport and trekking to and fro - instead of trains which are city center to center.

This is a time when less (destinations) is more (fun). If it were me - and it isn't - I'd spend the full 10 days or so in Paris and take a day trip or two outside the city if you can tear yourselves away.

Every time you change locations you waste half a day to most of a day - count from when you check out of lodgings in one place until you are in your next lodging. So even a 3 hour train ride becomes 5-6 hours when you consider time to the station, waiting for the train, the train ride, time from station to next lodgings. You have long flights to/from Europe, I wouldn't want to add more travel time to a short trip.

Save the other destinations for your next trip.

If you must visit a second city/country, I'd opt for Amsterdam which is a short train ride. Flights often take up more time than you expect because it's a long taxi ride to the airport from your lodgings, wait time for flight - check in 90 minutes in advance - then a long taxi ride to your next hotel.

May in Italy is wonderful and if you combine that with the southern parts of France, it makes a nice way to really absorb both countries. One of my favorite cities is Rome and this neighborhood is quite authentic and worth a visit.

http://travelphotodiscovery.com/tras...d-local-foods/

Here are more highlights to visiting Rome and some of my favorite areas

http://travelphotodiscovery.com/rome...-you-to-visit/

I would do Paris and a city in eastern Europe, to get a feel of the old western Europe and the reemerging Eastern Europe.
Paris and Budapest for example.
It also saves on cost - east is still cheaper.

I'd go in May and pick any two cities you long to visit (this is where guidebooks will help). If it was me/my trip it would be either Paris and London or Paris and Venice. But Amsterdam, or Rome or Prague or Bruges or Barcelona or Florence or Edinburgh or any of a number of other choices are great too.

But IMO a 'two fer' of Paris and Venice could not be more Romantic.

I agree with 2-3 places with a 10 day trip.

Some classic combinations could be Paris/Venice or Rome/Florence/Venice or Paris/Lac Leman (Geneva area) or Amsterdam/Paris.

But maybe you want to do a bit more reading and research and try to narrow down your wish list yourself??

For example, for me, I'm not really interested in Croatia , Czech Republic, Turkey, Greece, but perhaps you have your reasons that would make those a priority.

I agree with 2-3 places with a 10 day trip.

Some classic combinations could be Paris/Venice or Rome/Florence/Venice or Paris/Lac Leman (Geneva area) or Amsterdam/Paris.

But maybe you want to do a bit more reading and research and try to narrow down your wish list yourself??

For example, for me, I'm not really interested in Croatia , Czech Republic, Turkey, Greece, but perhaps you have your reasons that would make those a priority.

Wow...I am really amazed with the response from you guys.
Thank you very much, I really appreciate it.

So, as according to most of you, May is the best time to go. It sounds pretty good to me and it wont be as crazy to get a flight as 4th of July weekend.

Seems like everyone likes Paris a lot. One of my friend just got back from paris and he loved it but the only thing he complained about was the good and with me and my wife being hindus we don't eat port or beef which limits our options in food. Please correct me if i am wrong.

I really like the idea lot of you have suggested to stay in 1 country and make a day trip to another country.

@bilboburglar - venice really interests me. Its my wife's dream to go there one day.
@suze - Do you think 7-8 days is enough for Rome/Florence/Venice ?
janisj - I would have to go another visa to go to london. may be next time when i fly to india i can get a transit visa for london.
@emorata- thanks for sharing the pictures, they are beautiful

I would really like to see some mountains and stuff too

Congratulations, newbie! The very first response you received was from the acclaimed master of travelling by train, in Europe and probably anywhere. Click his link to find his encyclopedia of the rails.

<@suze - Do you think 7-8 days is enough for Rome/Florence/Venice ?>

Sure. That could easily be done, the cities are not far apart and there are easy train connections. For me personally, I'd probably just pick 2, either Venice/Rome or Venice/Florence. Because I like to move around a bit more slowly.

For ten days I would suggest limiting travel time.
A few years ago I did a trip from NYC->MILAN, took train down to Cinque Terre for 3 nights to do hiking in that area and see the countryside, then train to Florence for 4 nights, and then train to Venice. We did do one day trip out of Florence to Lucca, as we had seen pretty much everything in Florence at that point, and Lucca was a nice change for a day. It was a good mix of different areas and city vs countryside in Italy. We flew out of Venice->NYC.
Whatever you decide, try to maximize your time in a place and limit travel time so that you can really appreciate the place.
Have an amazing time. Europe is incredible!

Pork and Beef avoidance, should be easy in the countries you are looking at. Just watch out for the odd salad which might have meat hidden down the list and of course whatever the local for sausage is. Sausage could be horse or donkey based (which I guess is ok??)but pork and beef is more likely to be in there somewhere. In some European countries meat based fats are used in cakes etc but not generally in your selected countries.

Is milk allowed given that it comes from a cow? Soya milk may be available but note that very little soya is non-genetically modified in the world.

Of course if you are really vegetarian then I might get a note made up for the waiter just to ensure there is no mistake and you will often find a "V" in menus against certain items to help you.

@bilboburglar - Thanks for the reply. We do eat chicken,fish and eggs. Its just beef and pork that i have problems with. But if we decide to go to italy, i think we can survive on pizza forever :)

With 10 days (does that include travel days?), I would do Paris and Amsterdam. It's an easy train ride between the 2. Maybe 6 days Paris and 4 Amsterdam (or 5 and 3 if 2 days are lost to travel)

The other option would be to focus on 1 country, like Italy, and if you have 10 tourist days, then you can see the big 3 - Rome/Florence/Venice.

Wherever you go, purchase an open-jaw ticket (fly into 1 country or city and out of another) so no backtracking is necessary.

Don't try to do too much at once, especially if 1st trip to Europe.

Paris, Bruges and Amsterdam could be sweet. 5 days in Paris, including landing day and 3 in Amsterdam and 2 in Bruges which many folks rave about and IMO is one of the dreamiest old-world looking cities in Europe:

https://www.google.com/search?q=brug...sm=93&ie=UTF-8

It's about 2.5 hours Paris to Bruges via Brussels or Lille; 3.5 hours Bruges to Amsterdam via Antwerp.

For lots of great info on trains like the high-speed Thalys train Paris to Brussels and Amsterdam check www.thalys.com - or for general info www.seat61.com - Man in Seat 61 who posts first above - his commercial site and www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

short and sweet and three of the most gorgeous places in Europe.

Thanks guys

Do you guys think Paris would be too crowded ?

Right now i am torn between
Paris+Any other City
OR
Fly into Milan -> Florence+Cinque Terre+Venice
OR
Fly into Rome - Florence - Venice - This would be a little ambitious to do in 10-11 days ( which includes travel time )

Inputs appreciated :)

PalenQ - Bruges looks awesome

Do you guys think Italy has better food and wine scene as compared to Paris ?

I really feel like i will end up going to italy.

Any suggestions about where to stay if i decide to go to Rome/Florence/Venice ?

Thanks

We spent 11 nights in Italy in early May and had a wonderful time. We rented apartments through Airbnb almost everywhere, which we generally found were less expensive than hostels. Here's a link to my trip report, if you're interested.
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...y-may-2015.cfm

Lee Ann